Russia’s forcible transfer of Ukrainian children from areas under its control in Ukraine and on its own territory constitutes a “war crime,” a group of UN pollsters said Thursday, pointing to possible war crimes against humanity.
The investigative group has not verified the accusations of “genocide”, Erik Mose, one of the three commissioners in charge of the investigations, told journalists, who stressed that, however, “certain aspects raise questions regarding this type of crime”. .
In the presentation of the first report of the group that he chairs, Mose indicated that “we will continue with our investigations if our mandate is prolonged” in early April by the Human Rights Council.
In the document presented this Thursday, the survey concludes that “the situations examined regarding the transfer and deportation of children from Ukraine to the Russian Federation violate international humanitarian law and constitute war crimes.”
According to Kyiv, 16,221 children have been deported to Russia as of the end of February, figures that the Commission has not been able to verify. But it does accuse the legal and political measures taken by Russian officials to expedite these transfers and a presidential decree of May 2022 that facilitated the granting of Russian citizenship to certain children.
The German ambassador in Geneva, Katharina Stasch, has described the Russian crimes as “hateful”. “That is precisely why we want to explicitly include the survey on child abduction in the new mandate of the commission of inquiry.”
